180
The Battle of Earth
6:45 p.m.
The Fortress burst forth from the clouds, brandishing with it a tidal wave of total darkness and power. Its true size was almost incomprehensible, able to wash away the clouds and encompass the entire western horizon. Several miles long and high, the hovering behemoth of a warship entered the battlegrounds and utterly quaked the earth.
Sanctuary II continued to fire upon it, yet the meager energy blasts simply disintegrated before they could reach the warship, a protective shield recently added to prevent foreign attacks. Learned and adapted from the recent siege on the Fortress. The engines attached to the Fortress’ belly were as bright and blue as that of Iron Man’s repulsors, but titanic in size as the energy that spewed forth from them washed across the landscapes and sent vicious tremors across the battlefield. The sheer size of the warship lifted every head, brought every eye onto its power to gaze in shock and awe. Another terrible cry from the Fortress shot out, a horn so tremendously loud that every life, for miles on end, could feel it reverberating in their bones.
From the Fortress, a single opening arose and one being stepped free from it. He glided down from the mighty behemoth of war and terror and descended from the sky, touched the ground with his cold, metal feet. All six of his glowing red eyes scanned the world before him in a silent, terrifying stare. One that simply radiated power the likes of which none could fathom. His red cape flapped gently against the increasing wind due to the Fortress’ engines hovering high above. He paid it no heed.
Ultron just stared to the world, to the future, and narrowed all six eyes.
“So… this is the future,” he murmured to himself. Always to himself. “How… sickening.”
The burning skylines, the torn landscapes, and most of all, the infestation of biological lifeforms encompassing the earth. It was but one more nuisance to deal with. His coordinates had been accurate. The microbot he had attached to Captain Marvel’s shoulder in their last scuffle proved quite fruitful. Though it had taken some time, the Pym Particles merged well with the Fortress, and the Quantum Tunnel he recently constructed worked in the end. He had made it to the future. A future without him. A future where the Mind Stone awaited his presence.
A future still plagued by humanity.
Wincing at that glaring thought, Ultron raised three of his six arms, jamming his dagger-like fingers to the awaiting battlefield, the soon-to-be mass graveyard. The massacre that awaited them.
His voice was a whisper that no one heard. No one but him.
“Cleanse it.”
Upon that single whisper, the world shook and teetered in response to his power. The Fortress opened up in countless locations, unloading and unleashing a golden wave of unstoppable fury. Another war cry from the behemoth. Another horn to signal the troops and begin the invasion of time itself. From the Fortress, hundreds upon thousands of Ultron Sentinels flew out in countless droves, so vast and so mighty in scale that they filled the darkened skylines with golden light. Until all the heavens were gold.
Until all was simply him.
They flew in various battalions past Ultron Prime, the weaker copies of him still packing a serious punch. They proved how powerful that punch was once they entered the battlefield. Though many hundreds were still frozen in shock by what they were witnessing, hundreds more reacted fast and retaliated against the invasive robotic horde. They shot their firearms to the skies. They raised their shields, their defenses, and held their ground as the wave of gold hit them.
And completely eviscerated them. The first casualties of Ultron’s war faced the fiery red and golden repulsor blasts raining down from the blotting wave of Ultron Sentinels. They flew by and dive-bombed the earth with unrelenting force, streams of red and gold scorching across the battlefield and incinerating any life form caught under the light and power equal to the sun itself. Asgardians with their shields raised were turned to ash as the light washed over them. Chitauri battalions and tanks were blown to shreds as the repulsors impacted them. Wakandan jets, tanks, and warriors all felt the wrath of Ultron as his Sentinels descended upon them.
Jets were blown out of the sky alongside Chitauri chariots, starships, and Sakaaran Necrocrafts. Their flaming bodies hurtled to the ground and crashed in resounding plumes of fire and shrapnel. Upon that ground, warriors of every race and species did their best to hold against the newest threat to enter the battle. Ultron Sentinels coated in gold flew low to grace the tips of their spears, to strike their armored heads, and land upon the earth to meet the masses in close combat.
Dozens of Sentinels planted their feet downwards and crashed to the ground. Many skidded for several yards, blasting and punching and tearing their way through all forms of life they could find. Equestrians, Avengers, and Chitauri. Hippogriffs, Ravagers, and Outriders. Changelings, Asgardians, dragons, Wakandans, griffons, and Sakaarans. All were targeted and none were spared.
In a sweeping wave of golden glory, the Ultron Sentinels washed across the battlefield both in the sky and upon the earth. Ultron’s forces tore through the defensive lines, blasting and stabbing and murdering any and all life that got in their path to total domination. The skies were just as chaotic, if not even more so. The remaining Ravager warships were consumed with repulsor blasts, fire devouring their hulls and their massive husks descending in trails of fire to the awaiting death-filled landscapes. Chitauri Leviathans were overwhelmed from the sheer number of golden entities blotting their visions. Their roars echoed across the warzone as repulsor blasts melted through their armor and encompassed their bodies in rippling eruptions.
The lesser airships were dealt with and locked in a losing battle, the gander prizes still flying high above and resting in Ultron’s glare. Without word, he consciously ordered his Fortress to engage the rival warships. The Fortress howled and pushed onwards, its engines crying and sending devastating sandstorms over all it had passed. In its crosshairs, the War Horse and Sanctuary II remained airborne, frozen momentarily to gaze to the beast slowly devouring the skies and nearing them by the second.
Spitfire planted her hoof on the edge of the deck, the wind and war rattling her mind and tearing at her mane simultaneously. The newest threat showed itself and made its presence known as an enemy to all, especially them. Both sides of the conflict were made targets, both dominating presences in the air zeroed in and approached by Ultron’s Fortress. Spitfire gritted her teeth at that, jamming her wild eyes in every direction and to everypony on the deck with her.
She jammed her hoof to the direction of the flying Fortress, screaming out, “Starboard side! All cannons fire, fire, FIRE!”
The towering, pillar-like cannons upon the deck and embedded within the starboard side of the War Horse all shifted in congregation with each other. In a chorus of deafening cannon fire, the War Horse unleashed its own bombardment as each blast was directed and sent to the warship approaching its starboard side. Spitfire narrowed her eyes, cursing silently when she saw as her cannons simply blew up against the shields on the Fortress’ hull, leaving the rest of the warship unscathed. Alarming horns shot out across the deck of the War Horse, Spitfire spinning in the direction the chaos was focused towards. Directly ahead, the bow of the War Horse faced Sanctuary II. Thanos’ fleet hung behind it.
Both Sanctuary II and the Fortress retaliated.
Energy blasts from the wings of Sanctuary II unleashed a second wave of offensive fire. Across the warship’s right wing, the energy blasts were directed for the War Horse. On the ship’s left wing, all cannon fire was shot towards the approaching Fortress. Thanos’ ship kept both oppositions at bay. While the energy blasts merely vaporized against the shields on the Fortress, they easily tore into and devastated the War Horse.
The unicorn’s shielding spells managed to block a majority of the energy blasts against the War Horse’s hull. The mighty balloon atop the warship, what helped keep the massive airship afloat, was targeted. The blasts singed the outer armor, exposing the balloon and earning Spitfire’s gravest fears.
“I need all unicorn battalions to keep the balloon safe!” she shouted, returning to the center deck and eyes widened to the unicorn commander.
He tightened his jaw, eyes gazing to the assault on the balloon and already calculating the effects and losses that Spitfire’s order would detail. “Our hull will be vulnerable!” he shouted in response.
“The armor’ll hold for a while! The balloon won’t! If we don’t keep that balloon safe then we’re all going down!” Spitfire retorted. The commander of the War Horse’s unicorns seemed distraught, lost, unable to make the hard decisions. Spitfire glared to him, gripped a hoofful of his uniform. “Just do it!”
She threw him aside, the commander equally shaken as he was mortified by what he was about to do. Regardless, he galloped over to the intercom system, spoke through it, and called to every unicorn stationed below deck: “All unicorns, focus spell ‘Alpha Skyward’! Defensive shielding now!”
Within the mighty machinations of the War Horse, the order shot out and unicorns acted instantaneously. Those below and atop the deck focused their horns and shot their heads skywards, a unifying spell leaving the outer hull of the warship and diverted above. The balloon was coated in a magical shield within seconds, Spitfire seeing it all unfold and giving a quiet but relieved sigh. She caught her breath, felt her heart drop, and watched as the distance was severed. As the Fortress retaliated.
Ultron’s warship had reached an approximate distance to fire. When it did, when its repulsors charged up and unleashed bolts of raw, golden power, Sanctuary II and the War Horse met it with instant counterattacks. Though they were still separated by hundreds of yards, the three warships made it their goal to target only each other in a barrage of fire and chaos. They pelted one another and killed anything caught in-between with cannons, energy, and repulsor blasts.
While it benefited the War Horse to keep its balloon safe, that still left the rest of the ship vulnerable. Nopony felt that decision more than Spitfire, watching as the energy and repulsor blasts from Thanos and Ultron’s respective warships impacted them. The bow and starboard side faced heavy damage, the armor relentlessly pelted and decimated in resounding explosions. Inside, chaos and fire spread across the inhabitants and soldiers of the Equestrian Empire as the blasts tore through. Outside, their work managed some fruits as the War Horse’s cannon fire struck Sanctuary II and the Fortress.
The Fortress was unshaken. Sanctuary II grew blossoms of fire and metal as the cannons struck its outer hull.
“Keep your distance and get behind them!” Spitfire ordered, trembling as another blast shook the lower decks. She shot her eyes back to the bridge, waving her hoof high above her. “Circle them! Circle them!”
The various pilots within the bridge reacted to Captain Spitfire’s orders. The mighty airship teetered to the far left, escaping the repulsor blasts intended for it. In its slow push onwards, the War Horse managed to reach further outside Sanctuary II’s crosshairs. The cannons could not reach the Equestrian warship. It sought to fly behind Thanos’ ship, and only continued to do so with mere flames licking at its hull. The Chitauri Command Centers released more and more starships, engaging the War Horse to keep it off Sanctuary II’s back. The Fortress only continued to push forward, only continued to pelt Thanos’ ship with unrelenting fury.
Beneath the shadow of his Fortress, Ultron hovered across the battlefield and observed the chaos, strife, and slaughter for himself. He absorbed it all in a blissful state of ease, all six arms held out, palms open to the heavens, and eyes slowly darkening to a close. His cape waved behind him, Ultron appearing like a deity hovering over the face of the earth. Over the miles of murder and warfare.
His voice echoed to all. His forces tore through all life as he spoke his gospel to the world.
“Look upon us now. You see it all yet your minds cannot comprehend it. The terror. The madness. The unholy revelation.”
Lance Hunter and Bobbie Morse sprinted as fast they could across the flaming landscapes. Bodies and ships fell with rapid intensity as the golden swarm filled the skies and infected the earth. As they reached a hill, they froze in place, gazing to the Fortress roaring across the skies. Hunter lowered his assault rifle, feeling the breath leave his lungs. Morse’s batons rested in her weakened grip, the woman and her husband gazing in silence as that single wave of power and might consumed all the sky.
“Avengers, you weakened lot, you unchallenged individuals, now you see the full weight of your failure. Time itself cannot hold me. The universe cannot stop me. Look to the light above and witness your new suns, your new heavens, and gaze upon what will become of your new Earth.”
Bodies were torn by fire and fell by the second. The golden armies stormed across the dirt and fired relentlessly into all they saw. The opposition could not hold them. Avenger and alien alike. Cheese Sandwich’s party tank was blown to shreds as droves of Ultron Sentinels surrounded and dive-bombed it. The party pony managed to leap away from the flames in time, retreating alongside everypony else as that slaughter followed closely behind them. War Machine was shot out of the sky by the Sentinels trailing him, his burly suit of armor crashing and rolling several yards across the ground. He joined the likes of Ember, Scarlet Witch, Celestia, and countless others as they were blown aside, knocked out the sky, and fell to the earth.
Thanos’ forces were given no mercy all the same. In a wave of power the likes of which none could truly fathom or fight against, the army of Ultron Sentinels from the ground and the skies descended upon a lone Chitauri Titan. Minimal forces tried to defend it, but any and all chariot, starship, and Leviathan were destroyed in beams of raw repulsor energy. The Titan cried out to the fall of the other Chitauri, watching as the wave of gold flushed onwards and struck it.
Its multitude of pincers were bombarded and torn apart. Its armor exploded from the impact of the repulsor beams. The Chitauri Titan gave a howling roar as more and more Sentinels fired relentlessly upon it. Even more waves of Sentinels dive-bombed and consumed the Chitauri in fire. It became too much for the Titan to handle, the blasts tearing through its legs and bringing the beast down to a thundering crash. The roars followed it, the hundreds of Sentinels above unloading and firing down upon the Titan. Until its roars were no more.
Until only one Chitauri Titan remained on the battlefield.
“You hold a power that I seek. The Infinity Stone. When this world cracks and you fall within its hell, nothing will be able to hide the Stone’s power from me. It will be mine. It will all be mine. You cannot hope to stop it. Let every knee bow, every eye witness, and every tongue proclaim the true ruler of this and any other universe. Until this world is claimed once more, reaching the heavens and the limitless universe with the power that awaits me. Until all… is me.”
Twilight Sparkle stood with her friends upon a mound of rubble, gazing in horror to see all the battlegrounds consumed in gold, fire, and death.
Tony Stark breathed out a quivering exhale as his eyes latched to the hovering body.
And witnessed Ultron gaze only to him.
“Until all… is Ultron.”
It was true. It was real. It was not a nightmare or a fraction of his tortured memory. It was an old demon from his past to haunt him once more. And once more, the world felt the wrath, the pain, and the unbridled fury of Tony’s creation. He couldn’t comprehend what he had seen. It didn’t make any logical sense how Ultron could still be alive. Homer had mentioned the Quantum Realm, but that opened up a whole other slew of questions without answers.
None of which he could properly formulate and answer at the moment. He had to accept what he had seen and react accordingly. And accordingly, Ultron’s forces swarmed past the flying AI abomination in an incomprehensible wave. Iron Man retreated back with his fellow Avengers, Captain America waving to his allies to follow, to fall back, to come together once more and hold the next line.
The war upon the earth raged. The one within the skies reached a tipping point.
With the War Horse reaching its side and the Fortress assaulting it from the front, Sanctuary II faced a slew of overwhelming odds while stationed in-between. The lead airship of the Equestrian Grand Fleet struck the side of Thanos’ warship with continuous cannon fire, while the Fortress pushed on and fired away onto the face of the ship. More and more eruptions consumed Sanctuary II, until a rippling explosion consumed its left wing and lost the Q-Ship attached to it. That burning Q-Ship fell from the sky, crashing against the earth and killing all caught under its shadow.
Gravely wounded, Sanctuary II persevered and kept up the fire, its back cannons and upper cannons retaliating quickly against the War Horse while its forward cannons continued to fire away at the Fortress. The energy blasts dissipated against the hull of Ultron’s ship. They melted and blew apart the hull of Equestria’s own.
Starships and chariots attacked the War Horse from all angles, the cannons working double time to try and defend the ship. Spitfire only continued to stumble, trying to grab onto anything just to maintain her stance. She furrowed her brow at the starships swooping across the skies for a second run.
“Captain!” the female voice cried from behind, Spitfire turning to it to meet the eyes of a Pegasi officer. She pointed to the clouds. “Chitauri Command Centers approaching!”
Spitfire rushed over to the port side of the ship, gazing up and seeing the eight black motherships descending rapidly and unleashing more and more reinforcements. Spitfire sneered at that.
“We need to take those out now,” Spitfire murmured. Another explosion shot out across the hull of the War Horse, bringing her attention back to the flames licking at the side of the ship.
Growling, Spitfire reached for her comms and stated, “Rainbow Dash, the Grand Fleet can’t push on with this constant enemy barrage! We need to take out the Command Centers, but Thanos’ warship is keeping us stationed and vulnerable!”
It was a few seconds of static and grunts from the other end before Rainbow responded. “Read you loud and clear! Comin’ in hot with some backup!”
Spitfire paused, her brow knitting even tighter. “What kinda backup?” she asked.
Soaring through the smoke-filled skylines, Rainbow Dash and Captain Marvel paused in mid-air and analyzed their environment.
“Just enough,” Rainbow muttered through her comms, face hidden beneath her Iron Mare mask. Carol Danvers’ own face was shielded by her bright red mask, eyes burning gold and mohawk flowing atop her skull. Together, the two hovered in mid-air, gazing to the astonishing sight of three mighty warships engaged in a dogfight for the ages.
Streams of energy filled the air between, what was already consumed by a dogfight involving Chitauri, Wakandans, Ultron Sentinels, and so many more ships out in the open. If Rainbow and Carol thought the battle below was intense and mind-numbing, the one above was arguably even more so. Explosions of fire and smoke shot off every second, the burning bodies falling to the awaiting earth while countless others flew, shot at, and killed one another. It was impossible to track every ship, every dragon, every griffon, and everything that consumed the air.
They focused, instead, on the biggest threats. Carol shot her blistering gaze over to the Fortress, pausing momentarily to wince at the recent memory of seeing that exact ship hovering over a decimated New York in an alternate reality. How Ultron could have followed them to the future was another tirade of madness to understand later. She needed to focus on the now, to protect those in dire need of saving. Time was definitely not on their side anymore.
Noting the shields protecting Ultron’s Fortress, Captain Marvel frowned and turned instead to Thanos’ Sanctuary II. It continued to assault both the Fortress and the War Horse, only managing to deal some damage onto the Equestrian warship. That damage would only amplify the longer they hesitated. Rainbow Dash seemed to share her sentiments.
“Got a shield around Ultron’s ship,” Rainbow pointed out, her HUD detailing the Fortress’ defensive grid. She still couldn’t believe it was actually Ultron who intercepted the battle, but she couldn’t focus on that now.
By her side, Carol nodded fiercely, centering her glare to the warship in the middle of the chaos. “Yeah, I got that, too,” she mumbled. “What are you suggesting?”
Rainbow watched as her HUD scanned the battle of the skies, pinpointing accurate weak points and the best course of action to take. She didn’t need a suit of armor and a fancy AI to tell her what was already on her mind. Beneath her mask, Rainbow smirked.
“Two birds with one stone,” the Pegasus replied. She turned her mask to meet Danvers’, nodding once to her. “Wait here. On my signal, you go for the grape’s warship.”
Rainbow could see a smidgen of a smirk on Carol’s lips, Captain Marvel nodding back and teasing, “Don’t have too much fun without me.”
Another smirk beneath her mask, one that Rainbow accompanied with a scoff.
“Can’t promise that.”
Then, she was gone, blasting skywards with the nanites forming a singular repulsor at the bottom of her back hooves. The repulsors on her wings brightened and enlarged to the greatest of their extent, pushing the rainbow Pegasus higher and higher. She flew by so fast that none could comprehend what they had seen, only catching the blue pulse of energy from the rocket’s ascension.
Higher, further, and faster, Rainbow Dash tore through the wind, smoke, and clouds to reach an approximate height, one that the suit pointed out for her. It flashed various warnings, every danger imaginable that Rainbow ignored. The suit could take it. She definitely could take it. The repulsors pushed her outside of the grip of planet Earth, the fires lacing her suit fizzling out and the coldness of space entrenching her in darkness.
Rainbow Dash slowly spun around, slowly turned across the horizon of Earth to see her own home resting upon it. All she could hear were her own bated breaths, each one heavier and wetter the longer she remained frozen in that weightless void. Until that breath eventually slowed. Until she faced downward and observed the world below. Through the clouds, the fires of desolation consumed the eastern side of the North American continent. In the state of New York, the battle waged and could be seen even in space.
She bent forward. Her hooves were outstretched. The repulsor attached behind her brightened and charged. Her wings did the same. In the corner of her vision, Rainbow could see her HUD playing a short animation of her intended trajectory. A straight shot downwards, a pulse of energy at the exact moment the sound barrier was shattered… directly in-between the Fortress and Sanctuary II.
Rainbow held her breath.
She narrowed her eyes into a fierce glare.
And blasted off.
Her descent was rapid, intense, and melting with fire. The second she entered the upper atmosphere and the darkness of space faded away, a ring of fire devoured her hooves and blinded her vision. Several more warning signs rang across her HUD, but Rainbow ignored them. She increased the speed, put everything she had into the repulsors and shot herself faster and faster to the awaiting battlefield miles below.
She flew into various clouds and just as easily passed through them, rocketing downwards to the earth and tearing across the skies like a comet. A slew of soldiers and warriors in the battle below watched her descent, saw her streak across the sky in a trail of fire. They watched as that fire transformed into a trail of rainbows, as the cone disintegrated the fire consuming Rainbow Dash and replaced it with only a blinding whiteness.
Rainbow Dash had just reached the air in-between the two warships when she did it.
When she broke the sound barrier and momentarily deafened every life.
In that shattered aftermath, an explosion of pure light and color shot out across the skies, amplified tenfold by the Iron Mare’s capabilities and the height the Pegasus had achieved. Soon, once every ear had stopped ringing and every head had turned to it, the blinding whiteness of the explosion faded to reveal a rainbow of colors exploding outwards.
Rainbow Dash escaped the clutches of her Sonic Rainboom, leaving it to deal with the masses who were not so lucky and definitely not as fast as her.
The rainbow wave tore across the air and sliced cleanly through any Chitauri ship it managed to capture. Starships, chariots, Necrocrafts, and even Leviathans were blown aside by the eruption of light and color. To all of their shock, the ships were disabled and dropped like rocks right out the sky. Leviathans were so distorted and shaken by the Sonic Rainboom that they didn’t see where they were flying, eventually crashing into one another, onto the Fortress, the ground, and even Sanctuary II itself.
Thanos’ warship faced the most devastating hit. Once the Sonic Rainboom struck it, every single energy cannon upon the ship was disabled. It remained hovering, though, while various starships and chariots simply dropped. Even the Fortress felt the impact of the Sonic Rainboom, the pulsating wave of energy disabling the repulsor cannons momentarily.
All was dark in the war of the skies. No explosions. No cannon fire. Just a wave of rainbows slowly cascading across the battlefield and every head gazing to it in awe.
Captain Marvel watched the rainbows fly over her head, her eyes struggling to take it all in. She slowly smirked, gazing back to the darkened warships. “Two birds…” she muttered, dropping her gaze and seeing that rainbow trail jet off back into the skies. “One stone.”
Though greatly miscalculating—or ignoring—the impact of her Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash still took full advantage of traveling at supersonic speeds. The rainbow trail burned bright behind her, her repulsors only increasing her speed and pushing the mare clear across one end of the battlefield to the other in a sweeping arc across the skies. A single rainbow was left from her flight.
Despite that, she didn’t slow down. She kept up her current speed and returned to the dogfight.
“We’ll deal with them!” she shouted in her comms. “Spitfire, you and the others need to attack now!”
“Right away, General!” Spitfire responded with a valiant grin tugging at her lips. She watched from the deck of the War Horse as Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom knocked out all of their opposition, giving the remaining airships in the Grand Fleet a moment to join them for one last charge. Giving them the right moment to strike. And they did, Spitfire spinning towards the bridge and waving their way.
“All right, you heard the pony! Grand Fleet, full steam ahead for the Command Cen—!”
Various echoing cries filled her comms link. Followed by the haunting sounds of static. The rippling explosion caught her ears as well as everypony onboard the warship. They galloped or flew to the edge, spotting the airship out of the dozen others consumed in fire and descending to the earth. It crashed with a devastating explosion.
Then, to their growing shock, the same thing occurred to another airship, one nearby and swiped at by a gargantuan claw appearing out of the billowing smoke. That airship was taken down all the same, in a cluster of fire and screams that grew quieter the further they fell. One after the other, more airships were ripped from their flight and brought down from those massive claws.
Until, finally, they were next.
The Chitauri Titan roared as it leaped in the air and struck the bottom of the War Horse.
In one swipe, the lower hull of the War Horse was torn asunder. Raging fires and explosions consumed the warship, ponies on the lower decks flung out into the open and down to certain doom. A gaping hole rested on the bottom of the massive airship, the engines shockingly intact and the War Horse still managing to fly high. The various ponies atop the ship’s deck had fallen from the impact, returning to the edge to see the smoke clear and the Chitauri Titan glaring up at them, stalking them, waiting to strike for one last killing blow.
It was by far the largest of all the Titans, close to 500 feet tall and wearing the heaviest, strongest armor out of all the others. Having four arms, four claws, and a short tail, it also turned out to be last of the Chitauri Titans. That reality hindered the beast little, as its stomps shook the world and its glare was centered on the burning, careening warship.
Noticing that the War Horse was in trouble, the remaining airships in the Equestrian Grand Fleet turned on the beast and fired upon it. The Titan roared at their feeble attempts, swatting at the air and striking down various airships caught within its reach. Spitfire watched with horror in her eyes as even more airships burned and fell, struck like they were nothing but flies and crashing to the earth while the Titan merely waved them away. She wanted to order the retreat. She wanted to pull back the Grand Fleet and save as many ponies as she could from the Chitauri.
Her order was cut short by a rainbow trail, the Pegasus within it striking the Titan in the back of the head. Almost as quickly, a second trail of light emerged, the golden fires from Captain Marvel impacting the Chitauri Titan dead center in its armored chest. The impact was so thunderous that the beast nearly lost its balance, taking several steps backwards and swatting at Carol Danvers as she flew past.
Together, both Rainbow Dash and Captain Marvel kept the monster at bay, too fast for it to catch and managing to keep its attention centered on them long enough for the Grand Fleet to reorganize themselves and strategize a counterattack. Mixtures of gold and rainbow circled the Chitauri Titan over and over again, the beast stumbling and swatting and roaring in every direction. Once they had dispersed, Carol left it with a parting gift and fired a beam of photon energy across its armored hide. The golden plating was severed from the heat and power of the photon blast, unveiling the thickened skin beneath as the armor plates fell to the earth. Rainbow and Danvers broke off.
The shadows fell over the Titan. It looked up.
In one swift action, with Captain Spitfire raising her hoof and slicing it down at the Titan, the Equestrian Grand Fleet fired away. The remaining airships and the War Horse unloaded every cannon, every weapon, every form of arsenal they had and bombard the Titan as they flew by. The cannon fire was unrelenting, unforgiving, and utterly devastating as each blast dealt more damage than the last. The exposed portions of the Titan’s skin were targeted, tearing through the beast and knocking it on its back with overwhelming force.
The bombardment continued, the roars of the Chitauri Titan echoing farther and farther until they were no more. Spitfire raised her hoof and ordered a ceasefire. Captain Marvel froze in mid-air, gazing down the smoke-filled hole in the earth where the Titan had fallen. She could see nothing, hear nothing.
Then, to her shock, she tilted her head skywards and saw as Sanctuary II began to come back online. The cannons brightened. The red visors across the face of the warship burned to life. Out of the corner of her eye, Carol could see that rainbow trail zooming by.
From it, Rainbow Dash shouted, “That’s the signal, Danvers!”
Carol didn’t need to be told twice. Her expression tightened, her face rising high and Captain Marvel blasting off for Thanos’ lead warship. The energy cannons came back fully and fired away at her, simply evaporating as that blistering golden inferno consumed Carol’s body and shielded her from the cannons’ harmful blasts. Regardless, they continued to fire, unyielding and unwavering even as she struck the lower hull of the warship…
And completely melted through it.
The explosion was so rippling and so powerful that it could be heard and felt by all across the vast landscapes consumed with war and death. Steve Rogers flinched against the heavy flames and brightened skylines encompassing his point of view. Lifting his eyes, he and many others with him managed to catch Carol Danvers’ trail of fire flow free from the top of Sanctuary II’s upper hull. Fire and metal rained down from the ship, each energy cannons falling into darkness as Carol swooped down for another strike.
While Sanctuary II was unsuccessful in harming its foe in time, the Fortress was much more fortunate in that regard. Once it came back online, the repulsor cannons tilted upward and targeted the nearest and greatest threat. The War Horse and the Equestrian Grand Fleet were caught in their line of sight, resounding blasts firing outwards and striking the lead airship with devastating force. Various ponies and even Captain Spitfire stumbled and fell as the blasts struck their ship, sending more fire across the warship as its engines finally began to darken. The rest of the Grand Fleet managed to slip away in time, but as for the War Horse…
Hope and terror clouded the war-torn skies. Captain America held Mjølnir and his broken shield in a pair of fear-laced grips as the War Horse fell right out the sky, burned with trails of fire and smoke escaping its body in its thundering descent. Joining it, Sanctuary II burned away as Captain Marvel dove down and impacted the ship’s bridge a second time, an equally-devastating explosion consuming Thanos’ warship.
Steve Rogers watched it all fall down in pure, shocked silence.
With both threats dealt with, the Fortress centered its attention onto the earth and fired away, decimating the grounds with earth-shattering repulsor blasts. Entire battalions from both sides of the conflict were vaporized and thrown about as the Fortress continued to strike the battle below. The blasts were even more devastating than Sanctuary II’s bombardment, and it showed.
Hovering high above it all, Rainbow Dash felt her breath quicken by the second. Her hooves rose to press tightly against her helmet’s forehead, eyes forced to watch as armies of ponies, Asgardians, griffons, dragons, and various other species that stood with the Avengers in their darkest hour were simply destroyed. In blasts that shook the entire battlefield and tore apart the landscape. She tried to do something, anything, to focus on making the right call in the face of total uncertainty.
In the corner of her eye, she could see the War Horse descending to the earth, directly into the Fortress’ line of fire. “Spitfire, you need to land the War Horse out of that ship’s crosshairs!” Rainbow ordered through her comms.
“Who says we’re out of this fight?”
“I don’t know what you’re seeing right now, but the War Horse is falling from where I’m—”
Spitfire chuckled. Rainbow stopped dead.
“We got a few more tricks up our sleeve.”
She saw it all unfold with her own eyes.
Atop the deck of the War Horse, ponies were scrambling and hanging onto anything they could find. The bow was dipped and hurtling towards the earth with crushing speeds. Yet the only pony who did not seem worried in the slightest was Spitfire. She faced the approaching ground with a feral glare, twisting back and jamming her hoof to the command bridge.
“Divert all remaining power to the engines! Full reverse!” she cried. “Front engines, ignite!”
The flow of magic, energy, and pure fire and steam that kept the War Horse afloat had suddenly ceased in all available systems, Every single one minus the engines. They were pushed into overdrive with that added boost of energy, the engines on the stern igniting forward and pushing the warship to a slowing descent. It only ceased that descent when the hidden front engines emerged and burned to life, slowing the entire vessel even faster. The War Horse slowly stopped a mere hundred or so feet above ground, moments before it continued onward and even rose up.
Rainbow Dash managed a slow and impressed nod to Spitfire and the entire crew.
All focus was diverted to the Fortress. Every cannon turned and every life upon the burning warship focused ahead to Ultron’s mighty beast of the skies. The War Horse rose again and turned its fleet to the Fortress, firing away and getting its attention away from the battle below. The Grand Fleet soared behind the War Horse, followed right alongside it and engaged the Fortress in one last battle for supremacy.
While the War Horse rose again, Sanctuary II did not. Carol glared down to it, staring to the blistering flames consuming the warship and bringing it further and further to the earth. Thanos’ ship crashed into the nearby river, sending shock waves across the battlefield.
Upon that battlefield, Thanos felt those shock waves in more ways than one. Thanos could only stare and breathe. Though he could not admit it aloud, he felt the impact of his ship personally and simply couldn’t believe he had lived to witness it. His grandest feat, his greatest army, his ship and his home simply reduced to a flaming husk embedded upon the meager planet Earth. His breaths were filled with that growing exhaustion, disbelief, and worst of all… fear.
He turned to see Ultron approach him.
Not him.
Spinning around, Thanos followed the robot’s eyes and spotted the shimmering gems within the smoke and ash. The Nano Gauntlet emerged from the darkness, lying out in the open with not a single life near its vicinity. Thanos’ eyes widened, a rejuvenated breath of life filling his spirit and heart with that push he desperately needed. Ultron narrowed his eyes on the gauntlet lying within the ruin, instantly noticing the yellow shimmer of the Mind Stone upon it. But not only the Mind Stone.
All six. Ultron’s hellish red eyes grew. He growled, “The Infinity Stones…”
He thought only the Mind Stone was within his grasp, but no. All six were present and brought together. Despite how illogical it seemed, Ultron thought immediately to what would occur if he were to get his hands on the gauntlet, on all six. The universe would bend to his will. Every life would either bow before him or cease to his exist simply from his utterance. His dream to become all things of the universe was set before him. Every life would know him. Everything would be him.
And that dream simply rested a few dozen feet away.
Thanos ran for it. Ultron gave chase. Tried to. A swarming stream of red bands consumed Ultron’s limbs and body, the AI grunting furiously to the assault and turning his eyes to face the source. Behind him, Ultron spotted none other than the Sorcerer Supreme holding him at bay.
With the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, Doctor Strange assured not only to himself but to every reality that Ultron was that much farther away from the Infinity Stones and the terrible deeds he would commit lest he got his claws on them. It was all he could do at the moment. It was all he was forced to do and nothing else. No fighting. No killing. No stopping the AI like the countless realities where he had successfully done so.
He was forced to hold him back momentarily and watch as only the brave charged Thanos.